Installed in 2003, the Boston Women’s Memorial represents three literary women: presidential advisor and correspondent Abigail Adams, suffragist and editor Lucy Stone, and the first African American published poet Phillis Wheatley. The bronze sculpture by New York artist Meredith Bergmann takes the women down off their pedestals so that they can use the pedestals for their work. The Memorial is the result of a twelve-year public process led by the Boston Women’s Commission. Abigail Adams (1744-1818) was a critical thinker and valued correspondent with her husband, John, the second president of the United States. She took responsibility for managing their farm in Quincy, raising their children and looking after their finances while John was gone on the affairs of the new republic. Phillis Wheatley (ca1753-84) was the first published African American woman poet in America. She was brought to this country as an enslaved child and her poetry reflects her love of freedom. Lucy Stone (1818-93), a leader of the woman suffrage movement, founded and edited The Woman’s Journal and toured the country lecturing on abolitionism and women’s rights.
